Machination 84 is a generative audiovisual work by LIA and the experimental music collective @c (Miguel Carvalhais and Pedro Tudela), based on the musical composition “84.” The piece acts as a visual transcription of the sound, created through a custom software program developed by LIA.
Playing with the concept of “unedited film,” the work was recorded in a single take. During the recording, LIA manually guided the program via a keyboard interface, manipulating visualization routines in real-time to generate a live, evolving interpretation of the audio. This process offers a viewing experience parallel to their live performances, capturing a continuous flow of abstract mutations without post-production editing.
The work is distributed by Sixpackfilm and has been screened at major institutions including the Centre Pompidou, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and the WRO Media Art Biennale.
Machination 84 (2010), generative audiovisual work. Curated excerpt.
Selected generative outputs.
The Concept
This work shows a densifying forest of wavy lines flickering (at first) in a vertical direction and stylized billows of smoke that partially cover and complicate each other to the rhythm of the evocative music. The images were created in realtime while the music was being performed, and not manipulated in postproduction: This is a film without a cut, a continuous flow of abstract mutations, a kind of digital copperplate engraving.
The fragile visual texture, which is at first gray, white and black, soon blazes in pastel hues that gradually become more intense, while the synthetic soundtrack by @c – a delicate web of throbbing, clicking and ringing – creates an increasingly ominous soundscape. […] At the film’s end they run like paint – with a final surrealistic punch line: Toxic-yellow and blood-red trails, tangible like in action painting, move upward across the screen’s canvas.
Text by Stefan Grissemann for Sixpackfilm
Project Details
Year Created: 2010
Medium: Generative Audiovisual Work / Single-Channel Video
Duration: 5’43”
Format: 1280 x 720
Creative Collaboration
Sound: @c (Miguel Carvalhais & Pedro Tudela)
Awards
Tindirindis – International Animated Film Festival, Vilnius, Lithuania (‘Honorable Mention’, 2011)
Distribution & Selected Screenings
Distributed by: Sixpackfilm
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (‘Breaking Ground – Concrete Forms’, February 27, 2013)
Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia (‘Breaking Ground – Concrete Forms’, April 2 – 4, 2014)
WRO Media Art Biennale, Wrocław, Poland (‘WRO Art Center’, May 10 – 15, 2011)
Animafest – World Festival of Animated Film, Zagreb, Croatia (‘Festival Screening’, June 8 – 13, 2026)
Animafest – World Festival of Animated Film, Zagreb, Croatia (‘Festival Screening’, June 3 – 8, 2019)
Animafest – World Festival of Animated Film, Zagreb, Croatia (‘Festival Screening’, May 29 – June 3, 2012)
DOK Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany (‘Festival for Documentary and Animated Film’, October 17 – 23, 2011)
Animateka, International Animated Film Festival, Ljubljana, Slovenia (‘Festival Screening’, December 6 – 12, 2011)
LIAF – London International Animation Festival, London, UK (‘Festival Screening’, August 27 – September 5, 2011)
Anima Mundi, Rio de Janeiro / São Paulo, Brazil (‘International Animation Festival of Brazil’, July 15 – 31, 2011)
MIAF – Melbourne International Animation Festival, Melbourne, Australia (‘Festival Screening’, June 19 – 26, 2011)
Diagonale, Graz, Austria (‘Festival of Austrian Film’, March 22 – 27, 2011)
Tricky Women Festival, Vienna, Austria (‘Festival Screening’, March 10 – 14, 2011)
